U.S Box Office Report - 11th - 13th August 2006

1. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby - $23M - $91.2M
2. Step Up - $21.1M - $21.1M
3. World Trade Center - $19M - $26.8M
4. Barnyard - $10.1M - $34.1M
5. Pulse - $8.46M - $8.46M
6. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - $7.21M - $392M
7. Zoom - $4.6M - $4.6M
8. The Descent - $4.6M - $17.5M
9. Miami Vice - $4.5M - $55.1M
10. Monster House - $3.3M - $63.7M

Talledga Nights loses a predicted 50% of business from last weekend and stands just ahead of the competition provided by four new entries this weekend. The movie should go on to cross the $100M mark by next weekend and will then move ahead to overtake The Break Up as the biggest comedy of 2006 (excluding Over The Hedge & Cars which aren't strictly billed as comedies). It should comfortably finish up as Will Ferrell's most successful movie ever.

The shock this week comes from urban dance drama Step Up. There had been very little early word on the movie in conventional arenas but trailers & info had been heavily played on Myspace. The story seemed pretty clichéd, but the movie certainly found its market, perhaps the same one that propelled similar fair like Save The Last Dance to success.

Targeting the teenage demographic, veering more toward the female, the movie had the market to itself. Made cheaply, almost certainly recouping its production budget this weekend, the movie may well drop sharply next weekend but proves yet again that taking the chance of targeting a very specific market, while risky, can often pay dividends.

Oliver Stone's 9/11 drama, World Trade Centre enters the chart at no.3. Having opened on Wednesday the movie has proved more successful than April's United 93. Reviews have been keen to point out that this feels nothing like an Oliver Stone movie, with no hidden (or not so hidden) political agenda, something of a surprise given the subject (and the director). The movie proved far more successful than Stone's Alexander.

Barnyard drops a couple of places but only loses 36% of business from last weekend. While the opening weekend wasn't as big as Monster House in July, Barnyard appears to have stronger legs. In only its second weekend it has crossed the $50M mark and is only $12M away from overtaking Monster House (now in its 4th weekend).

Internet horror remake Pulse, drops in at five with a disappointing $8M. In a less crowded weekend this horror movie could have cleaned up, similar to how movies like Hostel did earlier in the year. Expect to see it drop fast next weekend and find its market on DVD. (Place your bets on whether we'll see an unrated version). The movie faced competition from the well received horror 'The Descent'.

Pirates 2 continues to take money and should clear $400M by next weekend. Easily the most successful movie of the year and ascending the all-time chart very quickly too, it's next target will be Spiderman who's domestic total sits at $403M. The movie sits pretty with a global total of $784M.

The Descent drops 3 places but only loses 48% of business from last weekend, an impressive total for a horror movie who genre generally sees drops of 55% plus in the second weekend. The film hasn't added any locations this weekend but that could be due to four new movies opening wide.

This week's casualty is the superhero fantasy Zoom, starring Tim Allen & Courteney Cox. With a similar plot to last year's Sky High, thought certainly not as well reviewed, the film faced competition from all sides with Talledga Nights covering the comedy and Barnyard covering the kid angle. This may well be its only weekend on the top ten. (See also My Super Ex-Girlfriend)

We round out the top ten with Miami Vice struggling to reach $60M and Monster House heading toward $65M. Monster House still has a number of markets to open in and a lucrative DVD market waiting for it. Miami Vice still has a long way to go and will be hoping that foreign markets and DVD prop up its huge production costs.

Elsewhere, the Steve Carrell comedy drama Little Miss Sunshine continues to do very strong business in a limited release. It took $2.6M from just 153 screens and easily had the highest screen/taking ratio of any movie in the top ten.